The Phoenix Project: Recycled Epson Printer Parts into 3D Printer

I'd like any thoughts on this. I like the idea of re-purposing technology. Too much electronics are sent to the waste site, with perfectly usable parts. So my idea was to recycle in this case used Epson Photo Stylus printer, motors, gears, pulleys, power etc. An environmentally friendly approach. Obviously there are tons of inkjet, laser, fax and copiers out there with parts that can have a second life as a 3D printer. This may need to begin as a smaller printer because of the motors.

Not all printers use two steper motors now days. It is usualy only one stepper motor to run the paper feed this is usualy a 7.5 degree step not a 1.8 dgree step as used by reprap. The print head is usualy a servo type system based on a standard motor with an optical feed back sensor to get very high speed print head movement and resolution at very low cost.

So using a 7.5 degree stepper ie 48 steps is one turn with 16x micro stepping gives you 768 steps per turn of the shaft.

Compared to 1.8 degree stepper 200 Steps per turn with 16x micro stepping gives you 3,200 steps per turn of the shaft.

This is quite a big diffrence to make up with gearing.

Adopting the Servo system would be a better solution however this will need Servo code to be writen to controll the axis so far no one has done this Yet!! on Reprap.. Most printers that use this servo system use an Arm processor to controll the printer not the slower Aurduino processor.

Its horses for courses....

Note a Scanner also uses the 7.5 degree per step motors. (as they are cheap) however the scanner appears to rely on the gearing to get its resolution.

And thanks for your comments. Older printers have stronger motors. I wish I knew about electronics. I wonder if the main boards stepper controllers could be tapped in to. Save some big bucks. Why are the stepper controllers (drivers) so expensive?

You're on the same route as me :
[forums.reprap.org]
Old Epson stylus printers are very good for recycling, they have good motors and electronics.
The steppers drivers can be used too, but you will have to use a microcontroller to convert the dir + steps signals from the controller board into phases driving signals. The opto end stops are also very usefull.

And speaking of money, I have now a fully functional mill that can mill polycarbonate and circuit boards for under 100€.

I'm not an expert at electronics. But with a bit of googling, and looking at the PCB board of the Printer, I have two FULL-BRIDGE PWM MOTOR DRIVERS (UDN2917E That sell for $9.99 each on ebay. Already wired to the motors!

I like the idea of reusing the power supply circuitry.

I can even imagine, the plastic case being ground down, and recycled into filament and being recycled into new parts.

I'll nered two more motors. I have the larger 13" version of this printer in my garage, I will recycle. Would the 5" longer drive bed be better useful for a certain axis?

So I have a 9" and 13" apprx. motor driven pulley system.

I think the plastic gears driving the paper through the printer would be great for the extruder.

Its fun to figure out how much of these parts can be re-purposed.

Can you tell me more about the "The opto end stops are also very usefull. " Where are they and how should I use them?

I wonder if the circuitry and ribbon cable to the print head could be reused some how?

_____________

What a cool idea, that many of use may already have the parts for a 3D printer in their garage or closet.

I do have an Arduino.

I'll wait until I get further before thinking of how to build the hot head. I have an old apple Laserwriter Pro 600. I'm sure there are a lot of gears, metal rods and motors inside.

________________________

Also, though the metal frame would have to be cut, The fact that the motor assembly, pulleys, and bearing rods can be used in one piece. Perfect tension and alignment.

Now that is a good result and interesting I've not opened any old Epson printers..

HP and Lexmark had the low cost 7.5 degree steppers one of the three scanners I took apart was also HP the other 2 were not big brand names All of my bits and bobs are chuck outs for recyling from friends and family.

Think I might have two or three Old Epsons stored in the home office..

Edit

Alas my Epsons are Not old enought they have 7.5 degree steppers just like all the other printers I have poped open however there was two 7.5 degree steppers.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/16/2011 01:28PM by BodgeIt.Bodge It [reprap.org]
=======================================

You're right, the big gear is perfect for the extruder, I've just build the extruder around it (pictures will be uploaded soon).
There are 3 opto sensors on the printer, I circled them on a picture of what I saved from an epson stylus 440 :

Actually, I only used the brass bushings and a rod from the 2 agfa scanners I took apart.
I use an older guillemot scanner for the base and Y axis because it has more space inside to put a second rod. On the beginning I used the original unipolar motor converted to bipolar, but it was too weak and the windings was unsuitable so I milled an adapter to use an epson stepper motor, it works way better now.

I've built a Prusa using two Epson carriage steppers. I reckon the 7.5 degrees motors could be used for z-axis as less resolution is needed for those, but the thin axis maybe a problem with some couplings (it is with my printed parts).

I've attached the picture of my y-axis. BTW, the belt can be recycled too, and for my 140mm table is was just the right length!

So I'm not sure how to wire this, and if these driver chips will work. Assuming they do not have the TRANSLATORS, then I'm guessing more needs to go between the Arduino and driver than, ENABLE, STEP, and DIRECTION?

Yes you need something that will convert step and direction to phase and current for each half of the chip, i.e. 6 signals. I don't know if you will find a chip that does that. I expect the micro controller in the printer simply had enough pins and did it in firmware.

Not really worth the hassle as the more modern chips do all this and more and only cost a few dollars.

Don't be too discouraged by 7.5 degree motors. If they have enough torque they would probably work fine on a Prusa style Z axis. You don't need anywhere near the resolution that you get with the screw+motor +microstepping arrangement. Most people run the Z motors at 4x or 8x microstep, (I run at 2x and it's something like 190 steps per mm) so running a 7.5 degree motor at 16x stepping would be more than adequate.

I have 2 Epson printers parts, and drive the 2 steppers from an arduino was not so difficult.

The power supply is 5v and 42v. I used a dremel to cut the circuit board isolating the drivers, motors connectors and the power connector. Its easy to find the tracks and keep all the need components without destroying, the hard part is soldering pins directly on the driver CIs.

Reading the datasheet you can choose the pins you want to use. I connected the PWM torque selectors to the ground, applying 100% of current to the motors, the driver CI and the motor get really hot. The pins Vref and RC to the +5v. Then you just need to control the phase pins to drive the full bridge.

I was not able to use the arduino stepper lib, I wrote a direct pin control program to do some tests.

All this topic is amazing!!!!
I'll try open my old Canon S330 then, and when I will visit my parents, I can probably get my hands on at least 3 old inkjet printers and probably one old needle printer!
Good discovery Dinseytoy!

Hi to all,
I am new on this forum, I write from Italy so I hope my english is understandable...

Dismantling an old Epson printer I found three A2917 chips on the board, I am very interested on how Rodrigo cut the board, because I like the awesome idea of recycling also the driver part of the board to make a 3 axes cnc machine, not exactly a reprap, but something more "generic" with the option to attach a drill, a laser cutter and why not an extruder...

the red wires are the ones im not sure what to do with.
Also, where do I connect the opto end stops: microcontroler or Gen7 board?
Do I have to cut the PCB with the steppers? or just wire te microcontroler directly to the driver chip?

End stops must be wired to the gen7 board, you will need to tie the end stop signals of the translator (FDC_mix and TDC_max) to GND.
Gen7 GND, Translator GND and A2917 GND must be wired together.
The Translator +5V needs to be wired to A2917's VCC (pin 40)

How is your projedct going? I have an Epsoon 2200 printer that has served me well. I am now getting messages that parts have come to the end of their "service life" and need to be replaced. The printer seems to be working perfect;y but I am going to replace it. I have a couple of new cartridges as well. It's yours is you can pick it up at my apartment, upper west side of Manhattan. Look forward to hearing from you.